We love this city! We spent more than 30 minutes there this time around the South Island. Perhaps it has something to do with finding Savannahs, boerewors and biltong there? A Saffa sanctuary, really :) There is such a laidback feel to the place and I imagine more so in the summer. We stayed at the coolest backpackers too. Yes, according to Lonely Planet! ;-p but more importantly, according to our experience. Paradiso by name, Paradiso by nature. It has a pool, sauna, jacuzzi, braai (aka bbq) area leading from the sliding doors framed kitchen plus friendly hostel-dwellers, including some long-term worker bees. So just chilling at the hostel was loadsa fun.

We checked out the Sunday market but there wasn't much happening there. It seems Sunday they have a carboot market whereas Saturday is the proper farmer's market. We crossed paths with a family that looked like Cape Coloureds but we weren't bold enough to mosey up to them and say "Awe, ma se kind! Waar gym jy?". But now we've got our opening line ready for next time :)

Next day we discovered Rabbit Island, one of three islands we could drive onto with a wide range of beachfront barbeques

. They have the strangest barbeque spots here. You basically make a fire in metal box and then FRY the meat on the top! So after discovering the Saffa butchery we were equipped for a "vleis en soseis" (meat and sausage) braai with biltong for starters. The butchery was Saffa owned but not Saffa run. I half expected a warm welcome and a "howzit" as we entered but later learned that a Saffa had bought the business from this eighty-odd year old man but he continues to run it.

Dee made her first solo fire attempt that day; you'll notice the ear-to-ear grin on the pic. Gotta love driftwood - you just stack it up, light some newspaper and then woof! I blame the Saffa culture for me never needing to make a fire before. Males tend to dominate the braai arena in SA, anything to avoid making salads or doing the dishes! I also learnt how to open a Savannah without a bottle opener. I guess I'm a real man now! ;-p